Technical Assistance

Businesses in Montgomery County have access to technical assistance from many different sources – just find the best fit for your needs.

General Business Assistance – on-line resources, business courses, mentoring, one-on-one business counseling, connections to financing.

• Maryland Department of Commerce
• Maryland Small Business Development Center
• SCORE  (Service Corp of Retired Executives)
• U.S. Small Business Administration

Targeted Business Assistance 

• Department of Veteran Affairs – Veteran Entrepreneur Portal
• Empowered Women International
• Governor’s Office of Minority Affairs
• Latino Economic Development Center
• Maryland Women’s Business Center
• MDOT – Minority Business Enterprise Program
• Nonprofit Montgomery
• Nonprofit Village
• SBA Office of Veterans Business Development
• SBA Office of Women's Business Ownership
• SBA Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses program

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Business Training

Classes and workshops on business topics help entrepreneurs and business owners take their companies to the next level.

Look to the local colleges, universities, and partnerships for a broad range of business educational opportunities.

• Montgomery County Small Business Accelerator Program - The Office of Human Rights and M&T Bank are partnering to offer a new 10-week business accelerator program to small businesses based in Montgomery County. The program teaches early-stage and minority entrepreneurs the essentials of business planning, operations, credit building, digital communication, financial management and more.
• Montgomery College Business and Information Technology Programs for update skills, learn management and leadership strategies prepare for small business ownership and entrepreneurship.

• Montgomery College Southern Management Leadership Program – a three-year experiential learning program that supports, develops, and graduates ethical leaders who want to energize and give back to their local communities. Students complete their associate’s degree at Montgomery College and transfer as a cohort to complete their undergraduate education at the  University of Maryland, College Park.

• Macklin Business Institute (MBI) – Originally a one-year sophomore-level honors business program, MBI has since grown to incorporate an additional two-year program for students applying to Montgomery College as freshman. MBI is an experiential learning program for business students to get hands-on experience in the business world and local community.
• The Universities at Shady Grove  – offers a full range of business courses from leading Maryland universities.

Business workshops and training.

• Capital Region Minority Supplier Development Council
• Latino Economic Development Center
• Maryland Women’s Business Center
• Montgomery College Hispanic Business and Training Institute

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Procurement Resources

Montgomery County has developed a variety of tools to help businesses that would like to pursue contracting opportunities.

There are many resouces avaiilable to small, minority, woman and disabled-owned businesses to reasearch what the county buys, who currently holds contracts and when opportunities might come up for bid. 

• Central Vendor Registration System (CVRS): Self-managed database of vendor information used by public entities to identify businesses that can respond to solicitations. Businesses can register in the Local Small Business Reserve Program and include business certifications. 
• Current Solicitations: Opportunities available for bid.
• dataMontgomery: Direct access to County datasets, including county contracts dataset, in consumable formats.
• Local Small Business Reserve Program (LSBRP): Sets aside 20% of eligible procurements for local small businesses.
• Minority, Female and Disabled-owned (MFD) Program: Expands opportunities for MFD firms on County contracts.